ANALYSIS OF AN IOT APPLICATION BASED ON SECURITY AND LAYER-WISE COMPONENTS

Introduction

The assignment is based on the development of an IoT device for monitoring the health of elder patients suffering from chronic diseases. The maximum population of the country mainly resides in rural areas and is not able to get proper health services or medicines which are required for the treatment of the patients. For this health monitoring systems have been introduced in the market, which helps to analyze the health of patients at remote locations. The responses of the monitoring system are conveyed to the doctors for analysis and medicines are provided after analyzing the health conditions of the individual patients. The health monitoring system can be designed using a three or five-layered architecture which is generally used for the design of IoT devices which will be used for the health monitoring of the patients. In this assignment, the application Tit-Bit is chosen from the play store for analysis.

Three-layered architecture

The IoT devices which are designed using the three-layer architecture have mainly three layers that support their functions. The initial layer which is present for the design of IoT devices for health monitoring is the layer of data acquisition which allows the health monitoring system to analyze the functions of a human body and sense the health problems which are affecting the individuals (Mohanta et al. 2019). Once the health functions are sensed, the data is transferred to a concentrator which passes it on to the cloud server, which is connected to the device. This server is mainly online and is able to transfer the data to the doctors from remote locations. Once this data is received by the doctors, the results are analyzed, and the patients are provided with medicines or certain measures which would help in improving the health of the patients.

Figure 1: Architecture of the three-layered IoT device

(Source: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Badis_Hammi/publication/319938161/figure/fig5/AS:619389300776960@1524685325123/Components-of-a-remote-patient-monitoring-system-that-is-based-on-an-IoT-Cloud.png)

The components which are present in the different layers of the IoT device are given as follows:

Raspberry pi
DSD18B20 sensors
ADXL345 sensors
ADC1015 sensors
Heartbeat sensors
Accelerometer
Devices used for internet connection
System for notifying

Five-layered architecture

A five-layered architecture can also be used for the design of a health monitoring system which will be able to collect the data regarding the functions of the body of the patients and also analyze these results to provide certain medicines which help to improve the health of remote patients (Tahsien et al. 2020). The main layers which are present in the five-layered health monitoring system are the acquisition layer, data gathering layer, network layer, storage layer, and the application layer which combines to make the five-layered health monitoring system. The five-layered architecture is mainly a more detailed version of the there-layered architecture.

Figure 2: Architecture of the five-layered IoT device

(Source: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samaleswari_Nayak/publication/332817015/figure/fig1/AS:906626773032962@1593168075375/Architecture-of-remote-patient-monitoring-system-see-online-version-for-colours.png)

The components present in the health monitoring system which uses a five-layered architecture give as follows:

Sensors
Accelerometers
Cameras
Temperature sensors
Devices used for internet connection
Processing module
System for notification of results

Selected architecture

The architecture which is selected for the design of the health monitoring system for the analysis of the patients suffering from chronic diseases is the three-layered architecture. This architecture is chosen due to its simplicity in design and maintenance. Once the device is designed the system mainly functions similarly in spite of the architecture used for the design of the device (Puthal et al. 2016). The three-layered architecture is mainly selected due to the easy implementation of the concepts of this architecture. The layers in a three-layered architecture are the layer of data acquisition, the transmission layer, and the analysis layer. These layers help to collect the data based on the functions of the sensors which are attached to the body of the patient which enables the system to collect the responses of different functions of the patient’s body. These collected data are then sent to the devices which are able to transmit these data on the cloud server and finally to the internet, which can then be accessed by the doctors of the system. The doctors analyze these data and notify the patients about the measures to be taken for the quick recovery of the patient. This enables the doctors to treat the people belonging to remote places without even visiting these patients. This makes it easier to treat patients and also allows the patients to get certain suggestions that help to cure the illness of the patient (Agarwal, and Alam, 2020). Thus the three-layered architecture is chosen for the design of an IoT device which will help the doctors to monitor the health of the patients much easier and in less time duration. This is mainly due to the ease of data collection and sharing, which is provided by IoT devices. [Referred to Appendix 1]

Figure 3: The expected architecture of the designed application

(Source:https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2542660520300093-gr3.jpg)

Security concerns

The development of an IoT device for the remote monitoring of the health of patients suffering from chronic diseases demands the development of an end-to-end security system that is able to send and deliver data easily and securely. The loss or theft of data may hamper the functions of the device in various ways. Various security concerns are derived while using IoT devices (Rani et al., 2020). The security concerns are mainly based on the loss of data which may hamper the functions of the device being developed. Some of the security concerns relating to the use of these IoT devices are given as follows:

Risk assessment:

The risk assessment of the device being developed must be analyzed properly before the device is deployed in the market. This is because the deployment of a device that is risky for use will be avoided by most users. Thus risk assessment should be properly performed before the deployment of any device in the market.
Proper registration:

It must be made sure that the users are using proper methods for logging into the system and also performing the processes in the right way such that the users are able to perform the functions without any security issues. The communication between the devices should also be monitored for proper access to individual devices (jestr.org, 2020).
Password breaking:

The use of normal passwords can raise the risk of the account being hacked which will mean that all the sensitive sets of data may be stolen or changed which may affect the health of the patient as the data may not be properly analyzed due to loss or modifications.
Authorized access:

The access to the data sets which are managed by the device should be managed such that only authentic users are able to access the data which are present in the server (Waheed et al. 2020). Once the access can be properly controlled the risks of unauthentic users accessing the data sets will be difficult and thus ensure the safety of the device.
Vulnerabilities:

The device is designed may have much vulnerability which can hamper the functioning of the device. The people interacting with the device should be trained properly such that the vulnerabilities of the device can be handled and the device is able to function properly. This is another security concern of the IoT device, which is being designed (academia.edu, 2018).

Figure 4: Security concerns

(Source: Self-created)

Countermeasures

The security concerns can be countered by implementing various countermeasures which will help the user use the device without facing any issues regarding the loss of sensitive data. Some of the countermeasures that are to be taken for the proper security of the system are explained as follows:

Proper encryption:

The data sets can be encrypted for enabling the device to transfer the data safely without enabling any hacker to understand or access the data sets which are being transmitted. This will ensure the protection of sensitive sets of data that are collected for analysis of the health condition of users.
Using passwords that are strong:

The use of passwords that are strong that is made following various conventions can enhance the security of the system (Al-Garadi et al. 2020). This is because strong passwords are able to provide better security to the data sets as they cannot be broken easily by the hackers trying to access the data illegally.
Patches:

Patches are released by the designers of IoT devices that are able to fix the vulnerabilities which are discovered after deployment. The users must ensure that the devices are patched at regular intervals such that the vulnerabilities can be reduced or minimized.

Figure 5: Countermeasures

(Source: Self-created)

Discussion

Due to the increase in the population, people are not getting sufficient opportunities to shift to urban places. Thus the people in the rural areas are not able to get proper treatments in their locality due to the unavailability of good doctors in most rural places. The IoT devices being designed can be used to provide health monitoring services to the people of the rural areas without their need to visit doctors in real life (Sheikholeslami et al. 2020). The IoT devices are mainly designed for the transfer of acquired data about the responses of the patient to the internet. These data are then analyzed by the doctors connected through the internet. Once the responses are analyzed the doctors provide certain medicines and suggestions for the patients such that their health improves. The responses of the patient are collected by using sensors which enable the proper collection of data regarding the responses of the body of the patient. The IoT devices are thus the advanced devices that can be used by the patients of rural areas to analyze their health conditions and also get suggestions for improving their health. The introduction of the IoT devices has thus enabled remote patients to get various pieces suggestions to improve their health conditions without visiting any doctors (escipub.org, 2019). [Referred to Appendix 2]

Technical issues

The IoT devices used for the monitoring of the health conditions of patients may have various technical issues which may hamper the experience of the users. The IoT device is being designed to monitor the health of remote patients suffering from chronic diseases and also elderly people unable to visit the clinics. Various issues may be faced by these users while using IoT devices. Some of these issues are given as follows:

Privacy:

The privacy of the data sets which have been collected from the patients is confidential, and the privacy of such data is very important. Once the data is uploaded the privacy of the data is mainly dependent on the server used by the device. Thus the privacy of the data may be hampered if the server is not secure enough.
Security:

The security of the server and the device is of high importance as the data of the users are sensitive and may hamper their lives if lost or accessed by unauthentic users. Thus the security of the system is of utmost importance.
Integration:

The integration of the devices is difficult and requires the involvement of skilled personnel for the proper integration of the devices (researchgate.net, 2016).
Expenditure:

The cost of the installation of an IoT device is high and thus not easily possible for most people. The device needs a one-time investment as once installed, and the device is able to function for a long period without any problems.

Figure 6: Technical issues

(Source: Self-created)

Conclusion

The project is based on the design and implementation of an IoT device that will enable doctors to monitor the condition of the patients using the device. The patients using the device are able to update their health condition by collecting the responses of their body with the help of the sensors which are present in the device. These sensors help to collect the responses of the body of the patient and then transmit these data to the internet. These data can then be accessed by authentic doctors and analyzed. The analysis of these data helps the doctors to identify the health conditions of the patients and provide various suggestions and medicines for the improvement of their health conditions. His device thus helps in monitoring the health conditions of the people living in rural areas and not able to visit the doctors at the time of need. The introduction of IoT devices for monitoring health is a great step that is helping the people suffering from chronic diseases and also the patients not able to visit good doctors.

Reference List

Journal

Agarwal, P. and Alam, M., 2020. Investigating IoT middleware platforms for smart application development. In Smart Cities—Opportunities and Challenges (pp. 231-244). Springer, Singapore.

Al-Garadi, M.A., Mohamed, A., Al-Ali, A., Du, X., Ali, I. and Guizani, M., 2020. A survey of the machine and deep learning methods for the internet of things (IoT) security. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

Mohanta, B.K., Jena, D., Panda, S.S. and Sobhanayak, S., 2019. Blockchain technology: A survey on applications and security privacy challenges. Internet of Things, 8, p.100107.

Puthal, D., Nepal, S., Ranjan, R. and Chen, J., 2016. Threats to networking cloud and edge data centers in the Internet of Things. IEEE Cloud Computing, 3(3), pp.64-71.

Rani, S., Kataria, A., Ghosh, S., Karar, V., Gupta, T., Lee, K. and Choi, C., 2020. Threats and Corrective Measures for IoT Security with Observance to Cybercrime. arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.08793.

Sheikholeslami, F., Jain, S. and Giannakis, G.B., 2020, February. Minimum uncertainty based detection of adversaries in deep neural networks. In 2020 Information Theory and Applications Workshop (ITA) (pp. 1-16). IEEE.

Tahsien, S.M., Karimipour, H. and Spachos, P., 2020. Machine learning-based solutions for the security of Internet of Things (IoT): A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, p.102630.

Waheed, N., He, X., Ikram, M., Usman, M., Hashmi, S.S. and Usman, M., 2020. Security and privacy in IoT using machine learning and blockchain: threats and countermeasures. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 53(6), pp.1-37.

Online Article

academia.edu, 2018, Analysis of an IoT application based on security and components, Available at: https://www.academia.edu/download/57984836/V7I12201817.pdf [Accessed on 12-12-20]

escipub.org, 2019, Analysis of an IoT application based on security and components, Available at: https://full.escipub.org/Articles/IJCN/IJCN-2019-07-2608.pdf [Accessed on 12-12-20]

jestr.org, 2020, Analysis of an IoT application based on security and components, Available at: http://www.jestr.org/downloads/Volume13Issue4/fulltext11342020.pdf [Accessed on 12-12-20]

researchgate.net, 2016, Analysis of an IoT application based on security, Available at:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rushi-Patel-2/publication/346715495_Cyber_Security_in_Domain_of_IoT_A_Review_Threats_and_Security/links/5fcf4897a6fdcc697bebd57d/Cyber-Security-in-Domain-of-IoT-A-Review-Threats-and-Security.pdf [Accessed on 12-12-20]